With just months to go until the 2026 Baking Industry Trade Show, the national finalists for the Excellence in Baking competition have been revealed.

Each year the competition sees some of the best baking and pastry apprentices from across the country battle it out – first at a regional level – before a lucky few progress to the national level.

This year will see the below apprentices head to Queensland’s Gold Coast from June 16-18, 2026 to compete.

Last year’s winners, Lewis Combes from Gumnut Patisserie and Jonathan Yates from  Toodyay Bakery both said it was a not-to-be-missed competition.

“The competition was actually really fun. I would recommend it to all apprentices because I learned so much from it,” Lewis said.

“For the state round everybody had the same recipe given to them so that was testing my knowledge… preparing for the national competition was a bit more hands-on. It was getting my recipes all ready, making sure they’re all correct,” Jonathan added.

As part of their prize both Jonathan and Lewis will now compete as part of Team Australia in ANZBake. It’s an aspect of the win that Baking Association of Australia executive director Tony Smith said would be repeated again for this year’s national winners.

The 2026 Excellence in Baking national finalists include:

• Griffin Lee, pastry, NSW (The Gumnut Pastisserie)
• Elleanor Healy, pastry, Qld (Creative Crusts/Uncle Bobs)
• Christina Zavialov, bread, Qld (Creative Crusts/Uncle Bobs)
• David Hardwicke, bread, Tas (Banjo’s Sandy Bay)
• Ruisong ‘Bert’ Sun, bread, SA (Banana Boogie Bakery)
• Phoebe Rees, pastry, Vic (VIC Melbourne Convention Centre)